Many software applications today offer a single variable background color that can be set upon execution of the application. For example, the software application includes a color palette from which the user can select a single color. The application then applies the user-selected color to the software application's component window. The graphical style created by these single variable color applications may not be responsive to the needs of users looking to create a unique graphical style for their software.
Unique graphical styles are effective marketing tools for software applications. Visibly different and aesthetically pleasing software applications standout and enable users to distinguish among different software applications. Also, unique graphics, such as multicolor and three-dimensional graphics, enable software designers to direct the user's eyes to specific locations and, thus, control where the user focuses his attention. Software applications implementing the foregoing techniques may be easier to use and understand than software applications that offer only generic graphics.
Oftentimes, software designers use identifiable colors to direct the user's eyes to specific locations. However, using only identifiable colors may not direct color deficient users to specific locations because they may unable to identify certain colors. However, color deficient viewers may be able to identify color contrasts created by multicolor transitioning. Software designers may direct color deficient users to a specific location by using the foregoing graphical techniques, thus, make software applications easier to understand and use.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a new apparatus and method for progressively transitioning the color of a selected portion of a software application's component window from a first color to a second color in order to create aesthetic multicolor shading and brightening and to create three-dimensional graphics within the component window. Using this apparatus and method, software designers can offer a graphical style, for example, that includes a first and second color, and a progressive array of colors melded between the first and second colors, rather than simply providing a flat color.